senate thursday, a first step in what could be a stand off of former senator chuck hagel's nomination to be the next secretary of defense. >> on this vote the yays are 58. the nays are 40. >> confirmation remains in question. >> taken policy positions that i believe call into question the quality of his professional judgment on issues critical to national defense. >> senator john mccain and lindsay gram say they are opposing hagel about israel and troop surges in iraq which are at odds to u.s. policy. >> it was unnerving some of the things that came out of that hearing. created more questions and doubts than confidence. >> hagel, the former will you be pick an senator declined for appear to struggle in explaining decisions. >> we're right? >> i would defer in your judgment to sort that out. >> the committee deserves your judgment. >> republicans have sought to link confirmation to continued questions over the benghazi attack. white house responded to questions in a letter today while democrats tried to be opponents. >> we got a car going on in afghanistan. we need to have a secretary